It seems to me the best way to get to the bottom of this is to ask questions to Peacejam itself. I doubt Naropa would give a straight answer, and their whole history says they frankly don't give a damn what NDNs think. Menchu is a legislator (congresswoman?) in Guatemala, but I doubt contacting her office there would be easy.
Peacejam has a thread on this I encourage others to speak up at. I'm going to post a message there myself.
http://www.peacejam.org/index/topics/2012-Revealed-with-Rigoberta-Menchu-Tum-1544.aspxYou'll notice there's one person who mentioned some kind of exchange program they were on and Menchu was happy to explain Mayan worldviews, but nothing like ceremony. There's one clueless guy who says "Give us the Mayan secrets!" but he may be joking. It looks like some of the youth groups associated with Peacejam are being urged to fundraise so they can go there, much like youth groups fundraise to go to NASA or thye Smithsonian and so on.
I don't see any sign of Nuagers flocking to this. Or really any mention of the Mayan elders names. Perhaps Naropa is behind them. If so, how can we even be sure they actually are Mayan elders and not imposters like Carlos Barrios or Hunbatz Men/Carlos Mena Toto?
ETA: Here's what I posted at Peacejam.
--------
Hello, my name is Al Carroll. I'm a Native historian and activist. I'm one of the mods over at New Age Frauds Plastic Shamans (NAFPS). We investigate concerns about imposters who pose as Native medicine people and elders, as well as those New Agers who exploit Native traditions for profit.
We have some very strong concerns about this event with Rigoberta Menchu and unnamed Mayan elders. You can see our discussion here.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=2744.0Obviously Peacejam does quite a bit of good work, and Menchu is justly honored for her landmark and courageous work as a human rights activist and leader of her people.
For those reasons, we wonder why Peacejam and Menchu would associate with an institute with such an ugly history of exploitation and abuse as Naropa? Naropa has hired imposters who posed as Native healers and elders. It was abusive of the civil rights of Natives who objected to such travesties.
Our second concern is why is this event seemingly being marketed like a New Age seminar of ceremony selling? Why the pandering to New Age misconceptions with terms like "Mayan secrets" and "lightworkers" and "2012 revealed"? After all, the whole hype about the supposed end of the world in 2012 because of some alleged Mayan prophecy is patently false, and being sold by dubious characters like Hunbatz Men and Albert Villoldo and Halleman.
Worst of all, why does this event seem to be marketed as offering a blessing for a high price, hundreds of dollars per person? Pay to pray is deeply offensive to the overwhelming majority of Natives, including Mayans. If true, it would be a crass exploitation of Native spiritual traditions.
Finally, who are the Mayan elders supposedly giving out a blessing for cash? We have a hard time believing actual Mayan elders would do this. There are more than a few characters posing as Mayan spiritual leaders (eg Hunbatz Men). Naropa's involvement only makes us wonder.
Again, this is no criticism of Peacejam's generally good work, but we hope you will deal with these deeply troubling issues. Would you sell a meeting with Bishop Tutu as "Come get a blessing from a Christian minister for 300 bucks! Learn real African secrets!"
